Urban spaces cross-curricular work: Literacy
This is part of a set of subject areas also covering History, Science, and Art & Design.
Public spaces offer a range of opportunities for children’s learning, and can enable children to investigate, observe, wonder, record and create.
The starting-point is the green man carvings often to be found on public buildings. Wikipedia has an entry for the Green Man with several images – see Green Man. Also ask Google Images for 'Kirtimukha' the Hindu green man. And you may have a local group of morris dancers!
You can also read about another variant on the green man, Puck in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, helped by a text-breaker. See also the text-breaker notes at the end of Reading documents.
AFTER SATS: Might you use some of the ideas in The Tempest lesson here?
There is also a pollution debate – is the area more polluted now than about 100 years ago? For this you need Writing frames by David Wray.
Questioning and speaking and listening are at the heart of this material. It is based around two key questions:
• What is your local urban space like now, and how is it used?
• What was it like in the past, and how was it used then?
Much of this focuses on speaking and listening, as well as on reading and writing.
Urban spaces Literacy teachers notes (188 KB)
Resources
Story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (150 KB)
Story of the Kirtimukha - the Hindu, Sikh and Jain green man (159 KB)
The Green Man photos (386 KB)
The Green Man worldwide record sheet (22 KB)
A Midsummer Nights Dream texbreaker (24 KB)
Typical green man carving on an urban building These materials contain ideas for field work in urban spaces and public gardens. The materials were originally developed for primary schools in central London as part of the Gordon & Woburn Squares primary project, but can be used in most urban parks and gardens.